San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon presented a proposal to a committee in Sacramento earlier this month, requesting an $80 million grant to construct new housing units at the Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in Devore, Calif.

The California Grand Jury is pushing for a change in Assembly Bill (AB) 109, or The Public Safety Realignment Act, from 2011. Overcrowding has become a major issue in San Bernardino County jails since AB 109 was established. The law was enacted in order to combat the unconstitutional overcrowding and inadequate health care in California state prisons, as decreed by a federal ruling, but overcrowding is now an issue in county jails.

California became the primary guinea pig in the prison industry after federal judges ordered the cash-strapped state to reduce its prison population within two years, starting in May of 2011, due to unsafe levels of prison overcrowding, a ruling later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Building a new prison is on the 2012 to-do list for Adelanto, Calif. The city is working on the drawings for a new prison that would be operated by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.